“The AI distinguished between a healthy brain and one with Alzheimer’s with an accuracy of 86 per cent. Crucially, it could also tell the difference between healthy brains and those with MCI with an accuracy of 84 per cent. This shows that the algorithm could identify changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s almost a decade before clinical symptoms appear.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Ottawa’s National Arts Centre CEO Steps Down
“Peter Herrndorf, who joined the CBC in the mid-1960s, rose to become vice-president of the CBC’s English radio and TV operations. He went on to become publisher of Toronto Life magazine from 1983 to 1992 and then served as CEO of TVOntario from 1992 to 1999 before taking the job of running the NAC.”
This Year’s Longlist For The National Book Awards
Lisa Ko is one of four début writers on the list, along with Carmen Maria Machado, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, and Carol Zoref. Two of the writers on this year’s list have contended for the award before: Ward and Jennifer Egan, who was a finalist, in 2001, for “Look at Me.”
Artificial Intelligence Is Mapping Our Faces – Say Goodbye To Privacy
“In the twenty-first century, the face is a database, a dynamic bank of information points—muscle configurations, childhood scars, barely perceptible flares of the nostril—that together speak to what you feel and who you are. Facial-recognition technology is being tested in airports around the world, matching camera footage against visa photos. Churches use it to document worshipper attendance. China has gone all in on the technology, employing it to identify jaywalkers, offer menu suggestions at KFC, and prevent the theft of toilet paper from public restrooms.”
“We Shall Overcome” Is Freed From Copyright
Described as the “most powerful song of the 20th century” by the Library of Congress, the suit against the existing copyright holders was brought last year by the same legal team who had successfully disputed longstanding ownership claims over Happy Birthday to You.
Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa Retires After Half-Century Career
The world-renowned soprano, 73, said she had stopped performing a year ago but had not revealed her decision until now. Te Kanawa told the BBC it had taken her five years “to say the goodbye in my own mind” but wanted to decide “when it was going to be the last note”.
The Future Of Cameras Increasingly Is Computer Code
What we think of as a camera is largely a collection of software algorithms that expands with each passing year.
This Year’s Emmy Winners
“This year streaming shows accounted for four of the seven nominees for Outstanding Drama Series, two of the picks for Outstanding Comedy Series, and programs like The Handmaid’s Tale, House of Cards, and Master of None have earned praise in nearly every major category. But earning a nomination only does so much; at the end of the day, it’s who takes home the statue that matters.”
How Indy Bookstores Are Making Themselves Popular Again
“Bookstores are making a comeback. Just take a look at the membership numbers of American Booksellers Association (ABA), a trade organization that works with independent bookstores: In 2009, ABA membership hit a low, with just 1,651 locations. Like a phoenix, that number has risen for the last seven years, reaching more than 2,320 locations in 2017. Book sales in independent stores are also up. According to the ABA, book sales in U.S. indie shops grew more than 10 percent in 2015 over the previous year, and in 2016 sales at independent bookstore were up nearly 5 percent.”
The 50 Biggest-Selling Musicians Of All Time
We compiled this list by ranking the most successful acts in music history according to their total certified album units sold in the US, as provided by the RIAA.